Sketching in my neighborhood is a real pleasure—sometimes, your biggest journey can be down the stairs of your home, or just around the corner. I live in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a nice residential suburb of Paris. When crossing the street, I can see the Arc de Triomphe on my right, and the contemporary blocks of La Défense on my left.
As an architect, I am drawn to attractive buildings, so I am lucky to be able to walk easily to places of interest in my own area, whether a private house full of personality, a typical nineteenth-century Haussmannian building or even a contemporary construction. Famous architects have left their mark on Neuilly, including le Corbusier, Andrault & Parat and, very recently, Frank Ghery with his Fondation Louis Vuitton. Nice playground!
But what I like to do most is to sit in a café, on the terrace if the weather is OK, looking at the environment, buildings, trees and people. There are plenty of cafés to choose from; they are ideally located and they generally offer perfect subjects.
I love buildings, but I also love to see how the city connects to real life and people who live in it. This connection is made through the “urban furniture” of the sidewalks, mixed with vegetation (a kind of living architecture)—lamp-posts, traffic lights, signs, trash cans, mailboxes and trees. These are part of our city and our urban life, and probably just as important to the cityscape as major constructions and the people walking by. So I draw them, as they are, playing with architecture, greenery and people.
EIFFEL TOWER
Paris
AVENUE MAC-MAHON
Paris
AVENUE DE WAGRAM
Paris
PLACE DU MARCHÉ
Paris